Interesting post from Vince Beltrami Aside from the ad hominem attacks from anonymous cowards who won’t say who they really are, here are a couple of the fundamental economic arguments. We will always be treated as a remote colony in DC except for the powers inherent in our delegation. Everyone can say Sen. Begich is just Obama/Reid all they want, the fact is OpenCongress ranks him as one of the most centrist senators around. Capital spending that creates jobs in Alaska come from the Senate Appropriations Committee. I believe, but am not sure, we are the only state with both of our senators on the powerful committee. And this is only possible because we have one from each party. Any state that has two senators from the same party will NEVER have both on Appropriations. This assures we always have a member from the president’s party, whomever the president may be. Obama will only be around two more years. The next president will likely be a Democrat, making Begich’s inclusion on this job-creating committee invaluable, and he’s already brought back billions. It’s foolish to throw that away for partisan advantage, or disadvantage in this case. Regardless, by Senate rules Sullivan would be the least senior senator, period. That’s right, dead last. Number 100. Unions in Alaska have always valued practicality over partisanship despite the fallacies spread by the most rabid of republican types. On oil and gas, for folks to diminish Sen. Begich’s efforts and accomplishments in this industry is ridiculous. Begich has accomplished probably more on oil and gas issues than any of our delegation in decades. His efforts, and YES, it was a push against Obama, to open up and keep drilling hopes alive in the OCS with Shell have been remarkable. Having a pro oil and gas Democrat in the Democratic caucus is also of tremendous value. And last I looked, there is and has been virtually full employment in the construction industry, union and non-union for several years, oil industry and otherwise. To suggest Democrats are stifling job growth in our state is to be divorced from reality.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 18:04:40 +0000
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